2004 Saab 9-5 at 46,500 miles
You did not give a mileage, so this uses 46,500 — the median reported failure mileage for this model year, which is a rough stand-in for “a typical example of this car”. Put your real reading in the box below for an answer about your car.
At 46,500 miles on this car
At 46,500 miles on a 2004 Saab 9-5, 9 of the failure modes other owners have reported already have their median report at or below your reading, and 0 more fall inside the window where they are usually reported. The heaviest of the ones already due is no-start or intermittent start failure.
Already past the median 9
Half of all reports of these failures came in at or below where your car is now.
- No-start or intermittent start failure 3k
- Headlight failure or clouding 47k
- Cruise control failure 5k
- Loss of power steering 19k
- Liftgate, tailgate or trunk failure 35k
- Other electrical problem 31k
- Electrical fire or melted wiring 5k
- Alignment fault and uneven tire wear 25k
- Other wheel or tire problem 10k
You are in the window 0
Your reading falls inside the middle half of reports for these.
Nothing here.
Typically later 2
Reported further down the road than where you are.
- Fuel pump failure 51k
- Ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure 70k
Timing unknown 1
Reported, but too few owners gave an odometer reading to place them.
- Airbag failed to deploy in a crash 1×
Why the list is generic until you type a number
Every figure below is a comparison against your odometer, so with no reading given the page has to pick one: 46,500 miles, roughly what a 2004 car covers at 12,000 miles a year. A reading 30,000 miles either side of that moves failures between the columns, which is the difference between a useful list and a generic one.
Already inside the reported range
9 failure modes on the 2004 Saab 9-5 have a median reported mileage at or below 46,500: no-start or intermittent start failure (median 5,000 miles, 4 reports), headlight failure or clouding (median 45,000 miles, 4 reports), cruise control failure (median 5,000 miles, 2 reports), loss of power steering (median 20,000 miles, 2 reports), liftgate, tailgate or trunk failure (median 35,000 miles, 2 reports) and other electrical problem (median 30,000 miles, 2 reports).
Half the owners who reported each of these had done so by that mileage, which means half had not. A failure being "due" here is a statement about other people's cars, and the useful response is an inspection rather than a pre-emptive repair.
Still ahead of you
2 further modes sit above your reading, the nearest being fuel pump failure at a median of 50,000 miles. On a car you intend to keep, these are the ones that decide whether it is worth keeping.
What this list is not
It is a reading of what owners of other 2004 Saab 9-5s reported, and at what odometer reading they reported it. It is not a maintenance schedule, not a diagnosis, and not a prediction about this car: two identical cars with different service histories are not the same car.
Complaints are filed voluntarily, mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers, and a failure mode with few reports has a wide window even when the median looks precise. Modes with fewer than 8 dated reports are shown without percentiles for that reason.
Where 46,500 miles falls on the curve
The three columns above sort the failure modes one by one. This is the same evidence in aggregate: every dated report on this model year, stacked up in the order the odometer readings arrived. The dashed line marked you is where your car sits. How much of the line is to the left of that mark is how much of this model year's reported trouble is, on the evidence, already behind you.
About 38% of the dated reports on this model year had already been filed by 46,500 miles. That is the share of the problems that show up in this record, not of the problems this car will have.
- Line share of reports filed by that mileage
- Dashed the mileages called out above
A steep early climb means a car whose reports cluster young, which is the pattern of a defect rather than of wear. A line that only gets going past six figures is the opposite. Neither shape says anything about the specific car in your driveway, and a curve built from a few dozen readings can be moved by one owner with a talkative afternoon.
Full report for the 2004 Saab 9-5 Compare with another car
Questions this page answers
What should I expect at 46,500 miles on a 2004 Saab 9-5?
9 of the failure modes owners have reported on the 2004 Saab 9-5 have a median report at or below 46,500 miles, and 0 more fall inside the mileage window where they are usually reported. That is a watch list drawn from other owners, not a prediction about this car.
How to use the three columns. The left column is the list to hand a mechanic before you buy, and to check the service history for if you already own the car. The middle column is what to budget for this year. The right column is not a reprieve — it is a reminder that a used car has a bill schedule, and this is roughly where it falls. All of it is drawn from 30 owner complaints about this exact model year, not from a maintenance manual. How the percentiles are computed.
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed